YouTube

The year's almost over, and that means it is time for YouTube's year in review. YouTube is home to content covering all aspects of the year — trends that arrived, events that took place, viral videos viewed by millions of people. The video service is showcasing all these things and more in a new video featuring 150 of its best known creators.

Android users will be first in seeing a brand new "buffering" text in their YouTube apps when a video is loading. This is unlike the past in which a spinning "wheel of death" was seen or - worse still - the video would just pause without any indication that it was about to start up again. Today, Google provides some much-needed notification of what's happening. Almost like they're opening the doors to you, the user, allowing you to see what's actually going on in the app, in your internet, as your video loads.

YouTube has definitely grown way beyond its initial library of short Internet videos, many of them involving cats. There's YouTube Red, which asks you to puy $9.99 a month get rid of ads. YouTube Gaming is its answer to Twitch, now owned by Amazon, and its dominance in game streaming. And most recently there's YouTube Music that turns YouTube into a makeshift music streaming platform. Now all that's left is a paid subscription for TV shows and movies. Well, according to insider sources, that's coming soon too.

What may be Google's most important update to their Chrome web browser for Android devices in years has just been revealed. This update allows a "Data Saver Mode" for the web browser, one that will allow you to browse the internet without images. Google suggests that you'll be able to "save even more data - up to 70 percent" by removing "most images" while you're "loading a page on a slow connection." Simple as that. This Data Saver might even end up blocking some ads on the mobile web.

With less than a month to go until Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters, Google is getting in on the hoopla surrounding the movie's release. The web giant has launched a new "Awaken The Force Within" promo that lets users align their Google account with either the Light Side or the Dark Side. Once navigating to the main page at google.com/starwars, users sign in like normal, and then drag their icon to either the left or right. After confirming their selection, all of Google's web apps will be refreshed with designs to match their alignment.

Google's YouTube has announced a new program that aims to support creators on the service when they become the targets of copyright claims. In select cases, when a video creator is being unfairly targeted with copyright takedown requests when in fact their content is protected under "fair use" guidelines, YouTube says it will provide up to $1 million to cover legal costs in the event of a lawsuit. In addition, YouTube will keep the video in question live on the website as a sign of support.

YouTube’s kid-friendly “YouTube Kids” app is now available to users located in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Ireland. The app is available for both Android and iOS, and is designed to present children with content that is age-appropriate, getting kids established on the platform early while removing reasons for parents to worry.

Today we're having a look at the basic features of YouTube Music. After a few days of using the service, we'll return with judgement - for now, it's all about discussing what you're able to do. Is YouTube Music worth the price you pay for YouTube Red? Sort of - incidentally you don't need to pay for YouTube Red to get many of the most awesome parts of YouTube Music. We're anticipating that point will be a bit confusing for users (at first). Google's prompts should do the trick once they're inside the app.

While you may have been able to use a Beta version of YouTube's VR feature before, today it goes full-power, leaving Beta mode. This is the first week in which the real-deal VR video software for YouTube apps on Android and iOS is available to all. This system works with both 360-degree videos (introduced many months ago) and with standard videos. Standard videos are able to be viewed in a sort of "theater" setting, not unlike "The Void" presented by Samsung GearVR and Oculus.

Earlier this month we introduced you to YouTube Red. Personally, I'm excited to see Google working on a way to remove ads from videos, without using some sort of ad-blocker. Unfortunately, with good intentions you can unfortunately have some negative side-effects. In this case, it's lead to some gaming videos to be blocked in the US.

This morning YouTube revealed a subscription service that'll encompass not only all of the video content they have to offer, but music from Google as well. With YouTube Red, users will pay a monthly fee to be able to view the vast majority of YouTube content without advertisements, and offline, too. This service ties in with Google Play Music - and YouTube Music Key - as they'll soon all be offered under the same umbrella, for the same monthly fee, all at once.

This morning YouTube debuted "YouTube Red", Google's first attempt at making a fully ad-free subscription-included video service. This service will be delivered for $9.99 a month and will include the entirety of YouTube without any advertisements whatsoever. This service also includes the ability to play videos on your smartphone or laptop offline - similar to downloading said video, sort of. YouTube Red also includes YouTube Music and includes a full subscription to Google Play Music - streaming all the music you want.